This morning Hunter and I spoke to a representative from Wallace Jeep in an effort to find out what financing options they were willing to offer us. Hunter had the opportunity to witness firsthand the sales technique of the dealer rep who was politely evasive and yet persisted in trying to obtain contact information from us. Hunter was able to witness firsthand how the dealer representative attempted to deter our ability to compare financing arrangements.

This afternoon we continued our discussions on new car financing. Hunter has been researching financing options with three different sources or types of financing- bank, dealer and credit union/insurance company. We discussed how dealers make it difficult for potential buyers to make comparisons between one financing package as opposed to another by offering dealer incentive such as zero percent financing.

I reviewed completing the square with Hunter today. He did several problems where he completed the square to rewrite an equation from standard form into vertex form. He seemed to understand the topic, but we need to practice it more.

I showed Hunter the vertex form of a parabola today. Hunter learned to identify the vertex directly from the equation. He then would plug in the value x=0 to find the corresponding y-intercept. He was able to graph the vertex, the y-intercept, and a reflection point. We also looked a bit at completing the square. He completed p. 255 (1-11 odd, 27, 28, 53, and 56)

Economic problems can often be modeled by quadratic equations. We can find the maximum and minimum of situations from these models. Hunter and I did some of these problems together. I was pleasantly surprised that he was able to comprehend them. We also looked at Khan Academy lessons about Vertex and Axis of Symmetry of Parabolas, and Hunter answered questions from the video.

I had Hunter graph parabolas by first finding the value of x = -b/2a. This value is the axis of symmetry. He then took this value, plugged it into the equation, and found the y value. This ordered pair (x,y), is the vertex of the parabola. He then graphed the y-intercept, c. He did exercises p. 248(11-27, 31, 33, 37-39)

We looked at the standard form of a quadratic equation, and talked about how the b and the c influence the way the graph looks. The c value is the y-intercept of the parabola. I had Hunter answer p. 248 (1-9) orally. We then watched an Algebra Nation video (section 6, topic 4) on Graphing Parabolas. Hunter took notes and worked the exercises along with the video.

We looked at the latest technology in both Construction of Tunnels and Bridges. Hunter views two super videos depicting the unbelievable state of the art machinery that is used in Spain to build a bridge. Likewise a tunnel is constructed using a giant boring machine for a series of railways under a major city.

Our 2nd trip to Home Depot on a field trip this beautiful Florida morning. We cover the areas we missed on the first trip. This included landscaping, brick and paver products, and all products at the west end of the store. Hunter was very engaging with observations and questions. Good session.

Today we examine some of the construction techniques that go into the building of dams. We first saw a video of the Powell Dam on the Colorado River between Utah and Colorado. Hunter spent some time around this area a few years ago. Secondly, we looked at the building of the Hoover Dam outside Las Vegas which I have seen. It was interesting seeing the construction techniques the two dams had in common. Great session.